


Lonely Extras

by Adenil



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Avengers Movie Night, Bruce doesn't get it, Galaxy Quest is to blame, M/M, Not Iron Man 3 Compliant, POV Bruce Banner, all the weird relationships, at least not entirely, but he tries
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-15
Updated: 2014-07-15
Packaged: 2018-02-08 22:55:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,771
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1959204
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Adenil/pseuds/Adenil
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The weird thing between Justin Hammer and Tony Stark, through the eyes of Bruce Banner.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Lonely Extras

**Author's Note:**

> Spoilery trigger warning at end of work.

 

It started, as these things do, with an Avengers Movie Night.

 

It was Bruce’s week to choose. He hadn’t even fretted over it. Tony had every movie known to man, and after Steve had fallen into the original _Star Trek_ series with characteristic vigor, _Galaxy Quest_ had been the most logical option.

 

There was popcorn and warm blankets and drinks all around. Most of the team was laid out across the couches as they usually were. Clint and Natasha had claimed the loveseat, and were currently curled up so far into one another that Bruce couldn’t tell where one ended and the other began. Thor was at the edge of his seat, hands clasped together, a huge smile already stretching across his face. Steve was sitting on the end of the couch, and Bruce picked a remaining spot on the other end of the long sofa.

 

Tony rolled in fashionably late, of course, getting there just as the opening credits were rolling, plopping down between Steve and Bruce.

 

He snagged a handful of Bruce’s popcorn and crammed it into his mouth. “What’s this? Some SciFi show?” The title came across the screen and Tony quirked an eyebrow. “ _Galaxy Quest_? Never heard of it,” he said in a tone that meant if Tony Stark hadn’t heard of something, it wasn’t worth it.

 

Steve shushed him and Tony rolled his eyes, eating more popcorn as the movie got underway.

 

For a moment, all was well. Clint and Natasha whispered back and forth, Thor kept his questions to a minimum, and Steve learned the modern meaning of _parody_. But then Guy Fleegman stepped onto screen and Tony nearly inhaled the popcorn kernel he was munching.

Bruce glanced over and watched as Steve thumped him on the back. With a choke, Tony leaned towards the screen, gazing intently at Guy’s performance. Bruce saw a strange light in his eyes, some mixture of concern and fear and—really, it was completely uncharacteristic. It was just a movie.

 

Only, Tony never really relaxed for the rest of the film. He sat there, rigid. Guy delivered some of the best lines in the movie, and Tony didn’t even crack a smile. His face was a grim line, and it made Bruce uncomfortable. The Other Guy was under his skin, wondering, and he tamped him down.

 

When the movie finished and the lights came up, Tony stumbled to his feet without a word. Bruce glanced over at Steve, who was giving him a worried look, and shrugged.

 

“Maybe satire’s not his thing.”

 

*

 

Nearly two weeks later, Jarvis told him that perhaps he was needed in Sir’s lab.

 

Bruce frowned at the nearest camera. The request was unexpected, to say the least, but he went anyway. The elevator carried him unusually quickly to Tony’s lab, and when he stepped out he was feeling a bit lightheaded.

 

He knew immediately why he’d been called there.

 

Jarvis let him in without even punching in his code, and it was just in time to catch the tail end of Tony’s argument with Pepper.

 

She was livid. There was really no other description for the look on her face. Absolutely livid. And angry, too, in a way that was separate from the lividness. She had her hands on her hips and was leaning in, her mouth pursed as she tried to impart the knowledge that Tony was a complete idiot.

 

“Pep, you don’t get it. I have to—”

 

“Tony, don’t tell me what you have to do because—”

 

“—get him out of there. It isn’t right what—”

 

“—if you say one more word I swear I will—”

 

“—they’re doing! He made some mistakes, but he’s just like me!”

 

“—walk out that door. Tony, if you _ever_ compare yourself to Justin Hammer again, I—”

 

“Maybe you should go, then.”

 

They both paused at Tony’s words, and Bruce hung there awkwardly, unsure what to do. He’d seen them fight before. All the time, in fact. Sometimes it was happy and good-natured. Other times it was like this. Too heated for him to understand, making the Other Guy itch at his skin.

 

“Fine,” she said curtly, and turned on her heel. She gave Bruce a pleasant smile, as if he hadn’t just walked in on their spat. “Good morning, Doctor Banner.”

 

“Good morning,” he managed. He watched her walk away.

 

Tony was sitting in the middle of his lab, knees bent behind the legs of a stool, a micro-spanner still clutched in his hands. He seemed shell-shocked, and it made Bruce’s heart clench. He moved towards him and Tony didn’t even acknowledge him until he rested his hand on the other man’s shoulder.

 

“She really left,” Tony said after a moment. He turned to look at Bruce, his eyes wide and uncomprehending. “Am I supposed to go after her?”

 

Bruce winced. “I don’t know.”

 

They worked on Iron Man upgrades instead.

 

*

 

It was only two days after that when Bruce was surprised by an addition to Tony’s lab.

 

“Bruce, Justin. Justin, Bruce.” Introductions done, Tony flipped his faceplate down and began welding again.

 

Justin Hammer swaggered over to Bruce, his hips swaying so much it made him a bit seasick. “Dr. Banner!” Hammer exclaimed, drooping his arm over Bruce’s shoulders and pulling him in like they shared a great secret. “I’ve heard so much about you. All good, of course,” he laughed, and Bruce grimaced. “Tony’s been singing your praises. He says you’ve got an interesting project in the works—something small, oh, what was it?”

 

“Portable water filtration device,” Bruce said dumbly.

 

 

Hammer snapped and pointed at him. “That’s it! You know, I’m not allowed to work on guns anymore. Least, not until this whole thing blows over. Maybe we can do a little show and tell, hm? I’ll need something to occupy myself with.” He was still holding Bruce like they were frat buddies. “How ‘bout this: I’ll show you mine if you show me yours?”

 

Bruce opened his mouth. He closed it again. Carefully, he extracted himself from Hammer’s grip. “It’s not usually a good idea to touch me without asking,” he said easily. He didn’t like the glint in Hammer’s eye at his statement. “I’m afraid my lab is closed to outsiders.”

 

“That so?” Hammer smiled again. “Good to know. I’ll just have to keep Tony here company, then. Right, Tony?” Hammer glanced over, but Tony didn’t even look up from his welding. “He’s always like that,” Hammer said to Bruce. “He’s got his own thing. I get it. I mean, I know what it’s like when genius hits. Can’t stop yourself from just building. But he and I, we’ve got a deal. We understand each other.”

 

His smirk was a mile long, and Bruce just stared at him. “Okay,” he said after a moment. Then, stupidly, he turned and walked out of Tony’s lab.

 

Maybe if he hadn’t done that, things would have turned out differently. But it’s doubtful.

 

*

 

Justin Hammer was fucking everywhere.

 

He talked like it was going out of style. Eighty percent of it was praising himself. The other twenty percent was a strange mix of putting Tony down and building him up, and Bruce really didn’t like it. He didn’t like that Tony sometimes _nodded along_ to whatever whack-job thing Hammer was saying. He didn’t like that Tony had apparently made Hammer’s bad-guy-rehabilitation his own personal mission.

 

Hammer didn’t know the meaning of personal space. He was all hands, loose arms, flailing limbs. He latched onto Steve the first time they met, and Bruce had never seen someone go from kind and caring to pissed off so quickly. At least Bruce felt better about that. If Steve couldn’t like someone, that generally meant they were truly unlikeable.

 

He was in the labs, at dinners, slipping in to movie nights, and Bruce was starting to think that the only place he was safe was on the field as the Hulk, but then Hammer showed up once there _too_. Even though Fury reamed him a new one, Hammer just smirked, swore it was all just a misunderstanding, and Tony backed him up like it was somehow his fault that it had come to this.

 

After that, Bruce didn’t really feel safe from the man anywhere.

 

It was still weird, though, when Hammer wrapped Tony a little tighter around his finger and convinced him to spring another man from jail.

 

Cupcake (and Bruce was sure the baby-faced man had another name, but Hammer had never said it) was definitely Hammer’s Prison Boyfriend. Bruce couldn’t think of another term for the way Cupcake hung over Hammer, doted over him, practically groped him and touched him as Hammer blabbed his ear off. Never once did Cupcake speak, neither telling him to shut up nor elaborate.

 

But at least he took on the brunt of Hammer’s constant talking. Bruce liked the silent man for that reason alone.

 

(Even if he did look up the man the day he arrived and found out that he’d burned down a dorm room with people inside. He didn’t ask how Tony had managed to get him out of jail. He didn’t want to know how he could have that much power.)

 

Hammer was still all hands and words, touching everyone and everything as if he owned it. Bruce hated it. But, sometimes, Tony would look at him and silently ask him to understand. To be patient. So Bruce was.

 

For a while, anyway.

 

*

 

“No, no, see, look, try to put this wrench there.” Hammer pointed at the part he was working on, and Cupcake dutifully tried to wrench it. “See? No, not possible. The wrench is too big. Why did you get me a wrench that was too big?” He spread his arms out, indicating the lab. “There are a lot of wrenches here. Maybe, maybe I could build one. Is that what you want?”

 

Bruce watched Hammer talk with a growing sense of fascination and abject horror. Hammer went on like this for a while, belittling Cupcake, then the lab, then somehow Tony, then back to Cupcake. Bruce turned to look at Tony, who was elbow deep in a car engine.

 

“Tony…” He started to go on, but Tony raised a hand to silence him.

 

“Three-sixteenths,” Tony said, and Dummy dropped a socket wrench in his hand. Tony’s face crumpled. “Wow, no, this is a five-eighths. Who invented you? I think you need an overhaul. No! Don’t beep at me in that tone of voice.” Tony went on, handing the wrench back and waving his hand. “Now, three-sixteenths.” He glanced up at Bruce and shook his head. “Five-eighths. What is the world coming to?”

 

Bruce nodded a bit at that. He handed Tony a datapad and they talked a bit about business.

 

*

 

Justin Hammer was like a bizzaro-Tony-Stark. Tony Stark if everything that had gone right had gone wrong, and everything that had gone wrong had gone right. Tony Stark if he’d never been able to get the girl. Tony Stark if he was disciplined but not beyond-gifted in smarts. Tony Stark if instead of _yes_ all he’d heard was _no_.

 

After a while, Bruce didn’t feel he had to ask why Tony had rescued the man who’d tried to kill him. He figured it out.

 

*

 

Eight months later, Tony and Hammer started disappearing.

 

Hammer was noticeable in his absence. Bruce would find himself flinching at nothing. No hands to draw away from, no friendly arm around his shoulder that made him shudder in distress. And Cupcake missed him, too.

 

Often the other man would find his way to wherever Bruce was and just stare at him. Bruce noticed that Cupcake didn’t seem like a complete person without Hammer. They went everywhere together. Cupcake was a shadow to Hammer, unable to exist without him, but Hammer could get by just fine.

 

Sometimes, he let Cupcake dote over him when Hammer was away. It seemed to calm him down, and Bruce didn’t mind. Even though he never spoke, Bruce understood. They shared a kinship. They both missed the person they couldn’t live without, even though that person didn’t need them at all.

 

Two sad lonely extras, sitting together, wondering where they fit in the world.

 

*

 

Only, he grew worried. He decided to track down where Tony and Hammer were going. He didn’t tell Cupcake about it, because what could he do? Start the hotel on fire? Actually, that was probably exactly what he would do, and Bruce didn’t want that.

 

One Saturday evening he snuck after them. They drove like they were trying to lose a tail, and Bruce thought for a moment they’d spotted him. But then he saw paparazzi dropping like flies and realized that, no. They just didn’t want cameras on them for whatever-it-was that they did.

 

Which made him nervous, really. So when he caught up with them at the hotel after managing to find which room they were in, some half-hour after they had checked in, he unconsciously hacked into the keypad on the door and pushed it open without even knocking.

 

He wasn’t sure what he’d been expecting, but walking in on Tony and Hammer _in flagrante delicto_ wasn’t it.

 

He stood there stupidly for a moment, just registering the situation. Tony was above Hammer, whose wrists were tied to the bedframe with what looked like neckties. There was an awful lot of motion going on in the hip area, and Tony hadn’t even completely removed his shirt. (Bruce wondered if that was because of the arc reactor, then he wondered if it would feel cold if they pressed chest-to-chest.) Neither of them had noticed him, and Bruce would have just turned and walked away if not for the noises that Hammer was making.

 

“No, no. Tony _don’t_.”

 

The Other Guy was suddenly Right There under his skin. He was flushed and hot and angry and as he opened his mouth, the Other Guy’s voice spilled out from between his lips.

 

“ ** _Stop_**.”

 

Tony tore himself away from Hammer so fast Bruce swore his saw smoke. He tumbled off the bed in a tangle of limbs, taking most of the bed sheets with him. Bruce watched him disappear with a growl. He turned to Hammer, who was gazing at him with wide eyes like saucers from behind his glasses, still tangled up in his bonds and completely naked.

 

“Ha-Justin,” Bruce said when he’d regained enough of his composure not to Hulk out immediately. It still wasn’t enough that he could risk moving, but he could at least talk. “Are you…all right?”

 

“Yes?” Justin blinked and tipped his head to one side, surveying Bruce curiously. Beside him, Tony scrambled to his feet, the sheet tangled around his waist.

 

“Bruce, I can expl—”

 

“Shut up,” Bruce commanded, and Tony wisely did. Bruce gripped his left wrist tightly. “Justin, if you aren’t okay—if this is some sort of repayment for letting you stay at the tower—”

 

“Nope, not at all,” Hammer interrupted him. He glanced over at Tony, who was looking a little ill, and quirked an eyebrow at him from behind his glasses. “Brucie Bean,” he said, still looking at Tony. “I think you’re a little confused. Tony and I, we have an understanding.”

 

“So you’ve said. But that has to end if something you don’t want—”

 

“Bruce,” Tony interjected, and his tone was so broken and disappointed and _sad_ that Bruce had to look up at him. He saw Tony’s face contort as he seemed to register the situation from Bruce’s point of view, and in that same instance Bruce understood the scene from Tony’s. “You can’t really think…” He glanced away.

 

Bruce wrung his hands together. No, he didn’t really think that Tony could be capable of that. This was Tony Stark. He knew him. Thought he knew him. Apparently did know him. Sort of. In a strange way that meant he was constantly learning new things. He opened his mouth to say something, and then closed it again.

 

“Safe word’s _capital punishment_ ,” Tony muttered, and turned to dig into table beside the bed.

 

“Which I haven’t used,” Hammer pointed out. Bruce realized with a start that the man had been uncharacteristically silent for more than ten seconds.

 

“I’m using it.” Tony appeared with a pair of scissors and quickly freed Hammer. Hammer sat up, rubbing his wrists, and he and Bruce watched as Tony slipped into his pants and headed towards the door. “Don’t wait up,” he said as he brushed past the still dumb-struck Bruce and into the hallway.

 

“So,” Hammer said after a moment, kicking his heel over the side of the bed and still looking completely naked. “If you’re not doing anything…”

 

Bruce turned and followed Tony.

 

*

 

They didn’t really talk about it. Tony ignored him completely for the next week-and-a-half.

 

It didn’t really matter at the time, because when Hammer and Tony disappeared again, Bruce realized there was someone else who he needed to talk to.

 

*

 

Bruce was in the kitchen, turned towards the counter, lightly buttering some toast when Cupcake walked in. He bit his lip at the man’s entrance, and Cupcake noticed and wandered over to him, concern evident on his face.

 

“So,” Bruce said after a moment. He stared at his toast. “Tony and Justin, huh?”

 

That was all the more he could say before Cupcake stabbed him with a knife.

 

*

 

He came back to consciousness by water, as he usually did when the Hulk-out was accidental. This time, it was just dirty run off from the city, pouring over his face and getting in his hair. He felt disgusting, and was thankful that he could no longer get infections.

 

Iron Man was sitting on top of a mound of dirt near him, his faceplate down.

 

Gradually, Bruce got his feet under him. He was pleased to note that his pants were still mostly on, though somewhat bloodstained. Noticing that made him wince, and he glanced up at Iron Man.

 

“How many?”

 

“No one is dead,” Iron Man said. His voice was muffled through speakers. “Half my tower is now rubble, and Chad is in a coma.”

 

“Chad?”

 

“Cupcake.”

 

“Oh.” Well, at least now he knew the man’s name. He stumbled over to Iron Man, who drew back from him. He paused, just staring at that reflective face plate. “Tony—”

 

“What happened to make you Hulk out?” Iron Man asked conversationally, as if they were talking about restaurants or new paint jobs.

 

Bruce wrung his hands together. “I—Cupc- _Chad_ stabbed me.” He pressed the palm of one hand flat against his stomach, still feeling the phantom ache of life spilling out of him. “It must have been a life-threatening cut. The Other Guy doesn’t wake up completely for much else, anymore.”

 

Iron Man flipped the visor on his helmet up, and suddenly it was just Tony again. “Shit, really?” Tony blinked as Bruce nodded. “Jarvis didn’t have a good camera angle on it. We didn’t know what happened.” He seemed to consider for a moment. “Why would he do that?”

 

Bruce had no answer for him. He allowed Tony to gather him in his arms bridal-style and carry him back to what was left of Avenger’s Tower. The rest of the team was there, doing damage control, and they had nothing but kind words for him.

 

Tony was silent, but Bruce noticed he didn’t mention Justin Hammer once.

 

*

 

Bruce never really found out what exactly happened, but suddenly Hammer no longer lived in the tower.

 

He’d heard it mostly second-hand through Clint of all people. Chad eventually woke up from his coma, and Hammer took him and a large settlement from SHIELD and moved halfway across the country. Bruce wasn’t sad to see him go, but he was sad to see the way it destroyed Tony.

 

Bruce understood, sort of. In a way. He got that Tony had wanted to redeem Hammer. He got that they shared something strange that he could never share with Tony. He got that Tony had actually struggled with the choice of sending Bruce away or sending Hammer away. He got that Tony berated himself with the knowledge that he’d never been this strong for Pepper. He got it.

 

So when Tony kissed him three weeks later, he didn’t push him away.

 

*

 

_Six Months Later_

 

Hammer and Cupcake just appeared in Tony’s lab one day, and suddenly it was like nothing had ever happened.

 

“I swear, you can’t take this man anywhere,” Hammer said as he threw his arm (lightly, Bruce noted) over Cupcake’s shoulder and drew him in. “He _insists_ we visit everyone who’s ever glanced in our direction. I told him I had enough trouble with that when relatives started climbing out of the woodwork to get a piece of Hammer Industries, but does he listen?”

 

Bruce glanced from Hammer to Cupcake for a moment, feeling a strange sort of dread. Behind him, Tony was hovering nervously. He decided dread wouldn’t be at all helpful in this situation, and so instead he smiled.

 

“Well, we’re happy to have you.” Behind him, Tony relaxed at his words.

 

Tony and Hammer moved around the lab in a strange, hateful dance. Tony showed off his latest work, Hammer scoffed and said he could do it all a thousand times better.

 

Cupcake stood on the other side of the table from Bruce, just looking at him.

 

“You made him chose,” Bruce said after a moment. Cupcake smiled at him, so he went on. “You made Tony confront an ultimatum, and knew he’d have to choose.”

 

Cupcake shrugged a little and looked over to where Tony was growing increasingly frustrated with Hammer’s laid-back attitude towards the latest repulsor technology. After a moment, he looked back at Bruce and opened his mouth.

 

“He’s not a good man,” he said, and turned and walked away.

 

Bruce watched him go; realizing dimly that this was the first time he’d ever heard Cupcake talk. His words rang through his ears as he watched Cupcake sidle up behind Hammer and brush stray lint from his shoulders. Hammer pushed him away a bit, muttering _not now, baby_ under his breath.

 

He watched them for a moment. Hammer and Tony were still bizarre mirrors of one another as they moved around the lab. But now, Hammer leaned into Cupcake’s touches a little more, grounded himself more readily in the other man.

 

In the midst of one heated argument, Tony glanced up and rolled his eyes in Bruce’s direction. Bruce smiled back.

 

*

 

Neither missed the person they couldn’t live without, because that person needed them just as bad.

**Author's Note:**

> Possible trigger warning for a case of mistaken sexual assault. Bruce walks in and thinks Tony is assaulting Justin. This is not actually what is happening.
> 
> In Galaxy Quest, Guy Fleegman is played by the same actor who plays Justin Hammer. Hence, Tony's freakout when he thinks he recognizes him.
> 
> Super bummed that I couldn't work in a scene of Justin dancing and Bruce going "WTF"


End file.
